Scared of flu? Not me.

October 21, 2009 - Per Peterson

The federal government is 107 million doses behind where it said it would be in terms of H1N1 vaccinations. The AP said it had originally promised 120 million doses would be shipped out by now. As of Wednesday, only 13 million have come through. Factories that produce the vaccine are backed up; the government itself ran into a delay in developing the tests required to assess each batch before it is cleared for use. Meanwhile, H1N1 has killed more than 800 people in the U.S., including 86 children, 39 of them in the past month and a half, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the AP said. More than half of all hospitalizations since the beginning of September were people 24 and under. So why am I not worried? For some reason, I just haven’t given it that much thought outside of reading stories about it on a daily basis. Obviously that would change if a member of my family got really sick, but right now, I’m really not sweating it. And you shouldn’t either. Now’s not the time to go into panic mode because the vaccine's not widely avaialbe to the general public yet; now is the time to be smart. Keep washing your hands and coughing into your sleeve. Keep reminding your kids to do the same. Anyway, what good would it do to panic? I’ve gotten sick before. I’ve had the flu before. I’m not downplaying the spread of H1N1, but if we all use some common sense, we should be fine, generally speaking. Bottom line: Don’t keep yourself up all night worrying about coming down with H1N1. Remember, it’s still just the flu.